Friday July 8, 2011 1:41 pm

Toshiba Thrive comes to Best Buy on July 10

The Toshiba Thrive finally has an official U.S. release date, although the news comes from retail partner Best Buy rather than the tablet maker itself.

Best Buy on Thursday confirmed that Toshiba's 10.1-inch Thrive tablet running Google's Android 3.1Honeycomb will be available for in-store purchase on July 10. Toshiba, unlike more publicity minded tablet makers, never named an official release date for the Thrive, though Best Buy and other Toshiba retail partners began taking pre-orders in mid-June.

Toshiba's new Wi-Fi-only tablet "joins a rapidly expanding tablet selection at Best Buy, which is re-designing both its in-store and online tablet presentation to enable customers to learn more about and easily compare new devices as they become available," the retailer said in a statement.

A big clue that the Thrive would be made available on Sunday arrived earlier this week when the Best Buy website's Thrive pre-order page began listing delivery dates of as early as July 10 for customers pre-ordering 8GB, 16GB, or 32GB Toshiba tablets.

Interestingly, while Best Buy lists that shipping date for all three of Toshiba's Thrive models, the retailer's Thursday statement only refers to the $479.99 Thrive with 16GB of onboard storage and the 32GB version priced at $579.99.

The 8GB Thrive, priced at $429.99, was still listed on Best Buy's site Thursday, with the same July 10-15 shipping window listed for the other two SKUs.

All three versions of the tablet feature "Black Tie"-colored cases and offer a year's worth of Geek Squad tech support bundled in for $99.99. Shipping costs an additional $8.99 for customers ordering online.

Inputs include a USB 2.0 slot, as well as Mini USB, HDMI, and SD Card slots. Pre-loaded software includes Toshiba Media Player, which lets users stream music and videos to DNLA Wi-Fi-enabled televisions, and Resolution+, which enhances video.

Best Buy is also serving up some Toshiba Thrive accessories for pre-order. These include Raspberry, Lavender, and Green Apple back covers, all priced at $19.99, a dust- and scratch-resistant screen cover, also $19.99, a $14.99 capacitive touch-screen pen, and an HDMI-connecting multi-dock with slip-resistant rubber footing priced at $59.99.

This article, written by Damon Poeter, originally appeared on PCMag.com and is republished on Gear Live with the permission of Ziff Davis, Inc.